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December 10, 2010

IT'S FRIDAY, MY FAVORITE DAY!!

There sure is a lot to do around this time of year! I got the rest of my Christmas decorations up and drafted our annual Christmas letter to get it ready to go. Dave finished putting up the rest of the lights outside. We leave the main ones that trim the eaves of the house up all year long because they are too dangerous to put up each time. Dave has to hang over the deck, which is about 20 feet off the ground while I hold on to his legs to install the lights, so we decided last year to just keep them up. Now all we have to do is trim the deck rails and flip the switch during the holidays!! The grandchildren are coming this year for Christmas so we want to make the place look a little festive. Dave usually has a Blazer game on Christmas but this year the team is playing a game on the road so he'll be home. Hopefully the weather will cooperate and everyone can make it down here.

Saturday night, we took some time to drive up to Cannon Beach to see "My Fair Lady" at the Coaster Theater. Neither of us are huge fans of musicals, but a friend of ours is in the cast and we wanted to see him perform. It turned out to be a lot of fun. There is so much talent in this area. We are continuingly surprised and impressed by the quality of performances we get to see in our little corner of the world.

Dave had a broadcast on Sunday, but since it was an early game, he was able to drive in and back home the same day. He was home by 11:30 and that's not a problem because he never gets to bed by that time even when he's home!

We drove back into town on Tuesday as Dave had a couple more broadcasts during the week. I dropped him off at the Rose Garden so I could have the car to do a little Christmas shopping. With a few more things checked off my list, I am almost ready for the big day, as far as gifts go anyway. Even though it was mid-afternoon, the traffic was terrible and it took me longer to get where I wanted to go so I didn't get everything done that I wanted to do. So the next day, I got a couple more things off my list. It sure makes me thankful that living in a small town I don't have to deal with this traffic on a regular basis.

Wednesday, Dave was scheduled to read the story "The Night Before Christmas" to our 5-year granddaughter Jaysa's kindergarten class. The teacher had asked the students to share a family Christmas tradition, so Jaysa brought the tradition to the classroom and had her grandfather read the book as he has done for our girls and now the granddaughters every Christmas Eve for the past 40 years. It was a sentimental moment and it brought tears to my eyes watching him read to all the children. Jaysa was so proud of her Granddad for coming to her classroom!

We also got together with Dave's cousin, Marta and her husband Gene. They had invited us to their condo on the Portland waterfront for dinner and to see all their vacation pictures of Prince Edward Island and Maine from last fall. They had known that we had taken the same trip a few years ago and that we would enjoy seeing them. Gene is an excellent photographer and his pictures caught the colorful leaves of the Northeastern landscape and were outstanding.

On Thursday, Dave had another game. He calculated that it was his 1800th broadcast since he started back in the very beginning. That's a lot of Blazer games!! It's funny how the word gets out. He posted a comment Thursday morning on his Facebook page about the milestone, and by the time he got to the arena, everyone was talking about it. In fact, they surprised him during the game by making an announcement on the PA and putting him up on the big screen. You can hear all of that here.

We made a few more stops on our way home today. The City of Wheeler is hosting holiday festivities on Saturday night and we are helping with that. We just found out that a huge rain and windstorm is approaching for tomorrow so I don't know how many people will brave the elements to come out. It has been raining all week and it doesn't look like there is any sunshine in the future. We're supposed to get up to 6 inches of rain this weekend, but right now, it looks like there may be a window around the time our little celebration is going to take place. That would be nice.

Next week is good news, bad news. The good news - we will be home until next Friday. The not so good? During the week, we have meetings, doctor's appointments, more meetings, physical therapy, even more meetings, holiday parties and - oh - did I mention meetings?